Stuart Horsepool (far left): Sees having the right attitude in training as crucial to his squad's medal hopes

Great Britain's Short Track performance director Stuart Horsepool believes that having the right "training mind-set" is vital if any of his skaters are to win a medal at the Winter Olympics in February.

Sky Academy Sports Scholar Elise Christie is widely regarded as Britain's best hope to do so having won the bronze at last year's World Championships over 1000m, as well as becoming the overall World Cup champion over the same distance.

Before Sochi though, the team will travel to Dresden to compete in the ISU European Championships, starting on Friday, with Horsepool prioritising race practice over medals ahead of next month's Games.

"We expect the squad to be at their physical peak in February, not at the European's this week," he said.

"So the main aim in Dresden is for them to get race practice to allow them to hone their skills ahead of Sochi, to ensure that they are sharp and race ready come Games time.

Challenge

"Our training environment is definitely a stop, check, challenge, move on and that's what I try and embed within the group.

"That's why I talk about the training mind-set being the most important thing. If you've got the training environment right, the training mind-set right to that stop, check, challenge, move on, it's like a cycle of planned in review.

"You set yourself a target, you look at the weaknesses and strengths of what you've got and you train them so you get better at them."

It is through this training method that Christie has managed to eradicate a key weakness in the past few months - racing from the back and Horsepool believes that as a result her chances of medalling at Sochi have significantly increased.

"I think she has a better opportunity to win a medal now than what she had at the start of the season - even though she was world number one - because she's been able to plug that gap," he explained.

"She's got that confidence and inner-belief now. She can go to the front, she can go from behind. The race tactics she's getting more and more comfortable with."